Back in the Saddle

Well, it was good to be on my feet and preaching yesterday. Thanks again for all the emails and well-wishes. I just want to address one question that was raised by yesterday's sermon, "Deifying Love & the Unjust Steward." I received an email yesterday that read:

"I have been thinking about today's sermon and I have a question for you. When you were talking about God's attributes this morning, you said that humans don't possess any attributes that God didn't possess first, such as love. Wouldn't that mean that God also possesses the bad attributes that humans have, such as greed, jealousy, hatred, pride, etc? I understand that God's main attribute is holiness and that He can have holy wrath, but how could he have holy lust or holy greed. If He has all of our good attributes, wouldn't that mean that He also has all of our bad attributes. I'm a little confused. I wanted to ask you this morning, but I didn't want to take you off on a tangent."

Good question! And I'm glad it came up because if I wasn't clear on that point then I'm certain other listeners are wondering the same thing.

I think I was specific to say “we can't have any positive characteristics that God didn't first have" when I introduced the concept, but as I continued expanding on that idea I never addressed the caveat above.

The answer is: humans are sinful and our negative qualities flow out of that fact. God, being holy, does not exhibit sinful traits.

God is sinless. Not so with humans. So, human attributes like greed, selfishness, and the like, grow from our sin nature. We follow our nature, which is depraved. But, in order for us to have any positive attributes, they must be gifts from God, who possesses those positive characteristics in the first place.

No, God does not have lust or greed, because those characteristics are in conflict with his primary attribute, which is holiness. We humans do have those characteristics because we are not intrinsically holy. We’re primarily sinful and our attributes reflect that fact.

But, it is not necessary for God to first have negative attributes in order for humans to exhibit them. God did not rebel against God, but humans did. God is faithful, we’re not.

Make sense?

Anyway, I appreciate the question and I'm happy for the opportunity to clear that up.